The Great Big Family Cooking Showdown, on Netflix

I am really enjoying this British spinoff of the baking show. One of the presenters is former baking champ, the charming and vivacious Nadiya Hussein. Judges are cooking instructor Rosemary Schrager and chef Giorgio Locatelli. Two families of three cooks each prepare three meals. The winning team advances to a semifinal round. The first challenge is a meal for 4, for under 10£. The second is a meal of their family favorites, prepared and served to the judges in the team’s own home kitchen. The last is a menu intended to impress the neighbors.

I think the format should have had at least one of the tasks be to prepare the same dish/meal, selected by the show’s producers. As it is, the judges are almost literally comparing apples to oranges, and the teams are able to practice everything in advance, should they wish.

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We watched the first show and thought it was awful. But, in the hope of improvement, we started to watch the second show. Switched off after 15 minutes. Such a waste of Hussein’s engaging TV talents - look out for “Nadiya’s British Food Adventure”.

As you possibly know, Bake Off has moved from the BBC to Channel 4 (a commercial channel but still state owned). Hopefully, C4 will sell the rights to someone, so you can watch it on your side of the Atlantic. Personally, I think the three new presenters (plus Paul Hollywood) make it even better than the original.

Thanks, John. My motto is “never 'nuf Nadiya”, so I hope NBFA becomes accessible online here. YouTube has blocked the Channel 4 season here. I have both Acorn and Britbox, but they don’t have very many series. Few are new, though Britbox did recently add QI, which is my Desert Island choice e of TV show. I am disconsolate that SF stepped down, but ST does an admirable job hosting in his stead.

If you’re a fan of ST, you’ll love her in Bake Off.

But the real star is Noel Fielding. Whoever thought that a Goth presenter of a baking show would work should get a very big pay rise.

So I got ahead of myself. In the later rounds, they did have to make the same dishes, without foreknowledge of what they were. It’s not as good as the baking competition, but I did come away with some ideas.

Sounds similar to “Family Food Fight” an Australian series that is just coming to an end. I thought it may have been the same production company but Food Fight is Edemol Shine (owner of the Masterchef brand) whilst Showdown is Voltage TV.

I watched a couple of the Australian ones and was intrigued to see the similarities with the (Australian) Masterchef format, sounds like Showdown has its roots in Bakeoff - and didn’t Channel 4 threaten the BBC with some legal action as a result…?

When it was first announced that Bake Off was moving to Channel 4, there was talk that the BBC would do another baking show. Channel 4 and the compnay that created BakeOff certainly indicated that they would take action if it appeared to be a replica of their show. Hence Showdown being completely different as a concept.

I was so delighted that the move to C4 didn’t ruin it. I thoroughly enjoyed this past series and was surprised by how much I liked Noel Fielding here. I man, I’ve liked him elsewhere, but this worked.